I have been interested in astronomy since I was a child and have watched countless episodes of the Sky at Night, a BBC TV show that has been running my entire conscious life.
I have filmed the Moon in several countries and one eclipse in London back in the 1990's and it was always one of those things that I was going to get around to doing...for myself.
In recent weeks I have been having a go at doing astrophotography myself and dug out an old star finder that I have had since 1982.
The pole star is in the center of the dial and the main constellations are all visible with the naked eye.
Analog Star Finder
Using this star finder I have been locating various stars and photographing them. Although I was pretty sure of the stars I was photographing it felt a little hit and miss.
This image below is Vega. It is a very bright star in the northern hemisphere. You cannot miss it. It is so much brighter than anything near it.
Vega
A very helpful steemian and excellent astrophotographer @astrophoto.kevin has been following my progress and kindly sent me a link to http://nova.astrometry.net/upload which is a brilliant piece of free software that can identify stars that you upload.
I uploaded my image of Vega and this was the result. It was confirmed.
Vega confirmed by a digital star finder
I cannot express my gratitude enough for this piece of fascination information and software link. Thank you Kevin.
Being of the scientific bent by nature and training. I thought I would give the software a blind test. I have used star finder digital apps in the past but found them lacking in many ways.
The first photo I uploaded was tagged Vega1.jpg and so I thought it may have given the software a clue. So I uploaded this photo below just called stars.jpg.
I knew it was Cassiopeia. It looks like a big W in the night sky. And that cloud it is in, is the Milky Way!
Cassiopeia
The result was again exactly right. The software identified it correctly.
Cassiopeia confirmed
I am as happy as a clam and have stepped into a whole new dimension to my understanding of astrophotography and astronomy.
This is what the web was originally designed for. For people to share ideas, grow and share their knowledge. I am fired up and more than a little excited for the future.
Thank you Steemit, Kevin and all my supporters for giving me the chance to fulfill a life long dream. I'm actually doing it and loving it.
My journey into Astrophotography.
Canon 70D camera and lens settings for astrophotography
Starry Night
Astrophotography on no budget
It's full of stars
I found a whole galaxy
Perseid Meteor Shower
Moon and Saturn
Turning the night time into day
My gear list
EOS Canon 70D
Sigma 30 mm
Sigma 20 mm
Pixel Shutter Cable Release
Travel tripod
That is totally cool. I wonder if it knows the planets also? Is it free?
It is free to use and yep it has all the planets of our solar system and way beyond too. No downloads either. Sweet tool.
Gosh, it is too difficult to determine which is which without the help of a machine/software. I mean someday people would say "Well, that's Vega" to me, and I just look up nodding while my mind keeps on thinking "What the hell I'm supposed to see". I guess passion really make difficult things much easier.
I suppose the old analog star finder can be considered a machine. People have been using similar devices for hundreds of years.
The software which is free to use is the digital version of the old star finder just with billions more stars.
Passion I hadn't thought of it like that but I guess you may be right :)
Thank you very much for your kind words. :-)
It is great to read that you fulfill your dream and you get step by step deeper in it.
It is a pleasure for me, that I can give you the one or other tip. :-)
The pleasure is all mine Kevin. It's been real and very rewarding. I'm now on the right path :)
That is nice to hear :-)
That is so cool! I have always just felt like I was guessing when I identified stars. Thank you for this!
You are more than welcome Melinda. It is a very useful piece of software and it takes seconds to identify just about anything we could wish to know.
Great How good is childhood.
After getting mature, they only run away for work.
This is so true.
And lose the wonder of life all around them. It's very sad.
@molometer it is the passion for your long time dream,that is seen today.Though i don't have much knowledge about stars and all, but it requires lot of patience and hard work to capture those type of images.keep it up and do share more photos.Eagerly waiting for them.
Thank you kindly Rohit, it is my pleasure to share some more photos with you soon. I went to Greenwich observatory today and it was truly amazing.
its really educating what you have posted here.
Thank you Tino and welcome to steemit. Hope you can find every success here.
That's so clever @molometer. I can see you having hours of endless fun with it. 😁
It's a constant source of wonder. I'm loving it :)
A nice telescope is now on the wish list :)
Christmas is not too far away @molometer. 😂
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Thank you @minnowpond this upvote was unexpected and very welcome.